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From: Martha Davis Beck <beck>
Date: Thu, 04 Oct 2001 22:42:32 -0600
The Little House books portray the experience of a pioneer family in the late 1800s. Fear of Indians--and stereotypical, derogatory attitudes toward them--were not held by all white settlers, but were widespread.
Laura's mother is both fearful of and hostile toward the Indians they encounter in Kansas and Dakota Territory. But it's worth pointing out that Pa doesn't share her feelings; when Ma expresses her views they are countered by his perspective, which is the perspective of someone who has had positive and meaningful contact with individuals in a given group, and is thus less able to consider them as "other." On a couple of occasions, the advice or help of individual Indians saves the Ingalls family from extreme misfortune. Pa expresses his respect and indebtedness to them.
In "Little Town on the Prairie" Pa performs in a minstrel show, in blackface. This is an alarming spectacle for modern readers--it certainly was for me, as a child in the race-conscious, idealistic 1960s.
My feeling is, these are quintessential "teachable moments." Today's children need to know how things have changed (the idea of a minstrel show now is appalling) and how they have remained the same (the fear and typing of groups we are unfamiliar with is something most people--children and adults alike-?n identify with and find plenty of disturbing examples of).
What in our contemporary literature will future generations shudder at and be tempted to mask? We can't know this. But a bit of humility about where we stand in relation to previous generations, in terms of ethics and morality, isn't a bad thing. And literature is a great place to explore these issues.
Martha Davis Beck
(I recently went to DeSmet, South Dakota, visited the Ingalls homestead, saw the cottonwood trees that Laura's Pa planted well over a hundred years ago, and watched my two boys climb up high into their branches.)
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Received on Thu 04 Oct 2001 11:42:32 PM CDT
Date: Thu, 04 Oct 2001 22:42:32 -0600
The Little House books portray the experience of a pioneer family in the late 1800s. Fear of Indians--and stereotypical, derogatory attitudes toward them--were not held by all white settlers, but were widespread.
Laura's mother is both fearful of and hostile toward the Indians they encounter in Kansas and Dakota Territory. But it's worth pointing out that Pa doesn't share her feelings; when Ma expresses her views they are countered by his perspective, which is the perspective of someone who has had positive and meaningful contact with individuals in a given group, and is thus less able to consider them as "other." On a couple of occasions, the advice or help of individual Indians saves the Ingalls family from extreme misfortune. Pa expresses his respect and indebtedness to them.
In "Little Town on the Prairie" Pa performs in a minstrel show, in blackface. This is an alarming spectacle for modern readers--it certainly was for me, as a child in the race-conscious, idealistic 1960s.
My feeling is, these are quintessential "teachable moments." Today's children need to know how things have changed (the idea of a minstrel show now is appalling) and how they have remained the same (the fear and typing of groups we are unfamiliar with is something most people--children and adults alike-?n identify with and find plenty of disturbing examples of).
What in our contemporary literature will future generations shudder at and be tempted to mask? We can't know this. But a bit of humility about where we stand in relation to previous generations, in terms of ethics and morality, isn't a bad thing. And literature is a great place to explore these issues.
Martha Davis Beck
(I recently went to DeSmet, South Dakota, visited the Ingalls homestead, saw the cottonwood trees that Laura's Pa planted well over a hundred years ago, and watched my two boys climb up high into their branches.)
--------- , "Subscribers of ccbc-net"
Received on Thu 04 Oct 2001 11:42:32 PM CDT
